Cain Talks: A Dangerous Road

Picked up a copy of my local Bay Area News Group paper (San Mateo County) this morning and saw this headline at the top of the page: “Giants Will Listen to Offers for Cain.” Several paragraphs passed before Matt Cain‘s name was mentioned, until finally it was noted that a “club source” says Sabean will include Cain in his trade offers for a productive hitter.

This is disturbing news, and I don’t think Andy Baggarly would have printed the source’s tip if it had no validity. Brian Sabean‘s actual quotes were vague, as always, but it sounds as if he’d trade one of the Giants’ front-line pitchers for a bat at the trading deadline — even if the incoming player is a potential free agent who could leave in the winter.

So, in other words, you’d trade Cain or Jonathan Sanchez for a bat, some guy who might see a strike every other Tuesday in that horrendous Giants’ lineup, and you’d go on to finish 11 games behind the Dodgers, and then the player bails onto the free-agent market. That’s the plan? Because it doesn’t seem likely that any young, contractually attractive hitters are going to be available by July 31. It sounds like Sabean plans to make a desperate run for a division title that simply will not happen.

I can see Sanchez being dealt, under the right conditions. He’s got superior stuff, but the Giants have serious and legitimate doubts about his makeup. Cain, meanwhile, has finally shaken himself from run-support hell. He’s 5-1 with a 2.40 ERA after his gem in Seattle last night (a complete game, no less). He’s emerging as one of the finest young pitchers in baseball, part of a 1-2 punch (with Tim Lincecum) that will be the Giants’ primary identity for years to come. And since when is the Giants’ rotation really that deep? Randy Johnson is 45 and surely near retirement. Sanchez is Sanchez. Barry Zito has made an impressive comeback, but he’s still considered the No. 5 starter. If you trade Cain, you’d better be damn sure that Madison Bumgarner and Tim Alderson are the real thing. They appear to be on that track, but so did a lot of guys over the years, guys who got injured or lost their confidence or somehow got derailed. Cain is becoming a lock, a sure thing. He has to stay.

Another thing to consider: How long do the Giants stay with Brian Wilson in short relief? His season has been a troubling swirl of walks, hit batters, blown leads, irritating gestures and irresponsible Twittering. He’s got that crazy-guy mentality you like in a closer, but he needs to develop consistency to restore management’s faith. I’m not familiar with the total game plan for the farm system, but I’d be grooming one of my best prospects as a closer, right now.

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Daisuke Matsuzaka returned to the Red Sox’ rotation Friday night, after being out since April 14 with a shoulder strain, and the Red Sox are still muttering about his participation in the World Baseball Classic. When are they going to wake up to reality?

Just as a refresher course, this is a guy who has thrown roughly six million pitches in his life. His legendary status began when he threw 250 in a 17-inning high-school tournament game, came back the next day to get the save, then pitched a no-hitter on the third day. Basically, he never stops throwing; that’s a way of life in Japan, where they don’t believe in pitch counts and pitchers have long, distinguished careers.

Dice-K is not a young man, nor was he pushed in the WBC. If the Red Sox would care to check how that tournament went down, Dice-K went four innings against Korea during a comfortable, 8-2 win March 7. Eight days later, he came back with six shutout innings in a 6-0 victory over Cuba, and it was another week before he got the call again, working 4 2/3 innings in a 9-4 victory against the U.S. in the semifinals. A lot of other pitchers had heavier workloads and escaped intact, including Jake Peavy, who raved about the experience and hardly missed a beat.

Then again, it’s easy to blame the WBC for sore arms and, really, everything. Personally, I blame the whole economic crisis on this event, particularly the Italy-Australia game in 2006. That’s where it really got started. It was just an avalanche from that point on, and I’m sure the Red Sox would agree.

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3-DOTTING: Somebody put together some incorrect numbers in the Sporting Green’s French Open chart. Rafael Nadal is actually 13-7 against Roger Federer lifetime, and he has a 5-2 edge in Grand Slam finals . . . Stunning: Peter Gammons, who generally looks at the bright side of things, went on the “Mike and Mike” radio show and said the new Yankee Stadium “has become one of the biggest jokes in baseball. We’ve had enough games. We know that this was not a very well-planned ballpark.” Gammons predicted that 16 homers would be hit in the Phils-Yankees series, and there have been 11 through the first two games. Here’s part of Tyler Kepner‘s lead in the Saturday New York Times: “There is no sense denying it any more: For $1.5 billion, the Yankees built a bandbox on 161st Street.” . . . One thing to remember: It was always a bandbox down the right-field line — not surprisingly, since it was essentially built to house the great Babe Ruth. It was only 295 feet down the right-field line during Ruth’s time, and 296 feet when Roger Maris broke Ruth’s home-record in 1961. Get this, though, for radical dimensions: In 1927, when Ruth had his 60-homer season, it was 281 feet down the left-field line, 460 to left-center, 490 to center field, and 429 to right-center . . . Final tennis note: With Federer and Nadal perhaps heading toward another showdown, there will be much talk about the greatest player of all time. But it won’t be worded that way. Just as LOL has become an idiotic shortcut for Internet geeks everywhere, GOAT is the culprit here. Let’s just drop this nonsense, OK? Goat means goat, the animal. You want to talk about the greatest goat of all time, then I’m in. In fact, I’d nominate a goat I owned many years ago. Solid temperament. Tremendous herding instincts.